The Allies vs. the Me-262:

      By the time Kommando Nowotny, the Luftwaffe's first Me-262 unit, was disbanded in mid November 1944, General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland knew they had demonstrated to both friend and enemy the incredible potential of the jet fighter.  The Schwalbe was 100 miles per hour faster than the best Allied piston engine fighters, and - unless it suffered mechanical failure such as loss of an engine - could only be caught in flight if the Allied pilot found himself in advantageous position to make a near-terminal velocity dive on the German fighter.  American pilots like Urban Drew and Chuck Yeager had, however, also demonstrated that there was a moment in an Me-262 mission when the fighter was completely at the mercy of any Allied fighter pilot - provided that pilot was willing to go in on the deck over a German airfield and put himself at the mercy of the hundreds of flak guns surrounding the base.  Once an Me-262 pilot was committed to landing, he could not change the throttle setting rapidly if he came under attack without a very strong possibility he would suffer a flameout and crash. 

      By the time JG7 and other Me-262 units were operational in early 1945, the tacticians at 2nd Tactical Air Force and IXth Tactical Air Command had come up with the only antidote to the jets they could manage with the aircraft they had available:  "rat catching" - formations of Tempests, Thunderbolts and Mustangs orbiting near known jet airfields, watching to catch the vulnerable Me-262s taking off and landing.

      Several of the jet units established Platzshutzstaffeln ("airfield protection squadrons") of late-model Bf-109s and Fw-190s to combat the rat-catchers and protect the Me-262s.

 JV-44 - The Galland Zirkus:

      After he was sacked as General der Jagdflieger on by Hermann Goering on December 27, 1944, Adolf Galland was bound for the Courland peninsula on the Eastern Front, to fly as a staffel kapitaen with II/JG54. High ranking friends intervened with Hitler, who directed that Galland be given command of new Me-262 unit, in which he could demonstrate that what he said about the fighter's capabilities was correct.  The unit was Jagdverband 44 (literally "fighting band"), and it would assume near-mythological proportions with those studying the air war in Europe afterwards.

      The unit did not enter combat until March, 1945, flying from the Luftwaffe test base at Rechlin, near Berlin.  Galland wanted to be where the action was, and at the end of March he moved the unit to Munchen-Reim, outside Munich in southern Germany.  They were right in the eye of the storm. 

     Among the aircraft of JV-44 that made the move south was the unit known as the Wurgerstaffel, the Zirkus Platzschutzstaffel.  Commanded by Leutnant Heinz Sachsenberg, and normally assigned four aircraft, they were also known as the Sachsenberg Schwarm.  While numerous Luftwaffe researchers have studied the unit since photographs of "Red 13" were discovered in 1986 and named it the Papagei Staffel, it is highly unlikely the unit was ever known by that name during its existence, though Papagei ("parrot") may have been their callsign.

      What makes the aircraft of this unit of interest to modelers is their unique markings.  Once thought to be painted black with white stripes on their undersides, they have now been confirmed as having been painted red with white stripes as a method of quick identification to flak gunners that they were "friendly" aircraft during any low altitude combat with Allied fighters.

      While there is no record of these aircraft ever entering combat against Allied fighters, they - like everything involving JV-44 - have become the subject of enduring interest by modelers around the world.  The unit had a sense of humor, since each aircraft had an amusing "dark humor" slogan on it.  At present, four aircraft have been photographically documented:  "Red 1," a Fw-190D-9 carrying the slogan "Verkaafts mei Gwand 'I foahr in Himmel" ("Sell my clothes, I'm going to heaven") flown by Staffel Kapitaen Sachsenberg; "Red 3," a Fw-190D-9 "Im Auftrage der Reichsbahn" ("By Order of the State Railway") a reference to the fact a shot-down pilot could travel free on the state railways to rejoin his unit; Red 4, a Fw-190D-11, "Der nachste Herr,deselbe Dame!" ("The next man, the same woman"); and "Red 13," a Fw-190D-9, "Rein muss er wen wir beide weinen" ("In he goes and then we both cry").

      Fortunately, well-known aviation artist Jerry Crandall took a personal interest in these aircraft and produced the definitive book on the subject, "Doras of the Galland Circus," available from Eagle Editions.  He has also produced a sheet of decals with the same name that is released by Eagle Cals, that will allow a modeler to produce all four aircraft.

 BUILDING THE MODELS:

 The Fw-190D-9s:

      There are two Fw-190D-9 kits, that from Tamiya and that originally from Trimaster, later released by DML and currently on release by Italerei. Of the two, the Tamiya kit has superior kit engineering and is easier to build, while the Trimaster kit is far more accurate but difficult to build.  Neither is entirely accurate built OOB.  I strongly recommend you get the Fw-190D-9 correction parts from Eagle Editions ( www.eagle-editions.com ) and use them to create the Fw-190D-9 models.  This set includes a corrected prop, supercharger intake, and fuselage gunbay cover/upper fuselage.  If you want to be a real stickler for accuracy, they also now carry a radiator and cowling designed by Gregg Cooper.  I further recommend you get the Part-R-Parts resin engine plug, since neither of these kits have the open wheelwells that allow you to see the engine, which was a very important part to the "look" of the Dora-9; the Parts-R-Parts engine plug is also available through Eagle Editions.  Visit a previous D-9 review to see what the parts look like when on the kit.

      The discerning modeling can also put in a resin cockpit if you so desire.  I recommend the True Details Dora-9 cockpit because it is the least expensive of those available and more than does the job for providing all the detail you would want.

      All of these parts can be used on either the Tamiya or Trimaster kit. However, if you use the Tamiya kit you will still end up with a wrong "sit" for the model because of the fact that the landing gear is 3/32" too short.

      As regards further construction of the Trimaster kit, the only real problem is mating the wing subassembly to the fuselage sub-assembly without ending up having to use a lot of putty on the upper wing joint.  The quick and easy solution to this problem is to cut a piece of sprue and fit it so it goes inside the fuselage just below and behind the cockpit once that has been inserted and glued in position.  Test fit until you have the fuselage pushed out enough that the fuselage and wing join correctly on the upper surface, and you won't even need any Mr. Surfacer to take care of the seams.

 The Fw-190D-11

      The Papagei Staffel is the only unit known to have used one of the five Fw-190D-11 prototypes on operational status.  This airplane was most likely the FW-190D-11 V58, the second prototype. The Fwo190D-11 differs from the Fw-190D-9 in that it has no fuselage armament, instead carrying the 20mm MG151s in the wing root, with 30mm MG108s in the outer gun position.  The aircraft also had a Ta-152 propeller and supercharger intake, and a bulged cowling to cover the Jumo 213E powerplant - the same one used on the Ta-152.

      ProModeler released what they laughingly call a "Fw-190D-11," which is nothing more than the Trimaster Fw-190D-9 with a different upper fuselage part.  The fuselage is not modified with the bulged cowling and all the parts necessary for the fitting of the MG108s in the outer wing is also missing.  The kit provides a Ta-152 prop and intake from the Trimaster Ta-152 kit, but overall it misses badly in looking like a Dora-11 when finished.

      A far better option is to contact Bob Stephenson, "The Wurger Mechanic," and buy his full-fuselage Fw-190D-11 conversion set.  The fuselage is cast so well in resin that when I first opened the box I thought I was looking at a set of Tamiya-quality injection molded parts.  The set also includes a corrected radiator and cowling, correct supercharger intake, corrected prop, and the gun cowlings for the MG108 cannon.  At $20.00 for the set, it is a bargain.

      The Dora-11 also had the open wheel wells and visible engine.  At the time I made mine, Parts-R-Parts were not available and I assembled it with the closed center section of the wheel wells.  I recommend getting the Parts-P-Parts engine plug for the Fw-190D-9;  the Jumo-213E engine is not that visibly different from the Jumo-213A the plug represents, and it is highly unlikely anyone you would ever want to have near your model would ever be stupid enough to call you on an "incorrect engine."  As a matter of fact, mine - without the all-important plug - took a medal at a local show shortly after being finished and no one mentioned a thing about the "incorrect wheel well."

      Construction of this model is straight-forward, with substitution of the Wurger Mechanic parts for the kit parts.  Again, I refer you to what I said above about insuring the fuselage fits to the wing subassembly.  Past that, you're home free.

 Painting: 

     After "pre-shading"the models, I painted the lower surface with Gunze-Sanyo H-11 Flat white.  I then masked off the stripes.  Remember that no two of these airplanes were striped the same way and that the stripes on the individual aircraft are not neat and symmetrical.  I then painted the lower surfaces Gunze-Sanyo H-414 "German Red 23".  When that was dry, I masked the lower I masked that area and proceeded to paint the rest of the lower camouflage on the fuselage. Please visit my D-11 review for more info on how this kit was constructed and painted.

      It has been determined that Luftwaffe fighters of this period could have been painted with either RLM76 Blue-grey, or the "RLM84" color of "Sky."  There are two known possibilities for this last color, and I have seen parts from crashed Fw-190s that had both.  One is a yellowish/bluefish/green color very close to Gunze-Sanyo H-74 "Sky," while the other is a tan color very close to Tamiya X-57 "Buff."  No one has ever been able to determine which airplanes were painted what colors; since the airplanes were built from pre-painted sub-assemblies, it is possible for a late-war Fw-190 to have all three colors on it.  I did that with these airplanes. 

      Of the Dora-9s, two were done with the power egg engine cowling in RLM76, the fuselage center section in the "sky" color of "RLM84" and the tail in the tan "RLM84."  One was done with a "tan RLM84" power egg, "sky RLM84"center fuselage and RLM76 tail. It has been conjectured that the Fw-190D-ll was built from a Fw-A-8, so I did the power egg in "sky RLM84," the center fuselage in RLM76, and the tail in "tan RLM84".  It makes for a more colorful look to the fuselage and I defy any member of the Kolourpolizei to prove me wrong.

      Following the instructions with the Eagle Cals decals, I painted "Red 1" and Red 3" in upper surface camouflage of RLM82 Light Green and RLM83 Dark Green, while "Red 4" and "Red 13" have their upper surfaces in RLM 75 Grauviolett and a RLM 83 Dark Green.  Each of the upper camo colors were also "faded" by adding a bit of Gunze-Sanyo H-49 "Violet" to the color; this is because in Europe, due to cloud conditions, airplanes did not fade from sunlight on the ground, but rather from high-altitude sunlight above the clouds, where the UV factor is much stronger. You only want to use a very little bit of this, just enough you know it's in the paint after you mix it.

      The prop blades were all painted RLM70 Black Green, with the spinners painted yellow on the forward part, which was then masked off and the rest of the spinner painted RLM70.

 Decals:

      What can I say?  Eagle Cals are great decals.  They're printed by MicroScale, they go down easy, and the instructions are so good that only an illiterate could fail to get the right decal in the right positions.

 Overall Finish:

      I figure these airplanes didn't get all that much use after they got their colorful paint schemes, so the undersides are left relatively clean, while I "dinged" the rest of each model at places where the pilot boarded, the piano hinges for the cowlings, the gun bays, etc.  I am a big believer with weathering a model that "less is more," since most airplanes don't end up being used like tanks, particularly airplanes in the ETO; the Germans didn't have that much avgas at this stage of the war to fly their aircraft on any but the most necessary missions.

 Conclusion:

      I don't know how I managed to accomplish doing all four of these airplanes - I certainly didn't start out with that plan in mind!  Picking up a couple cheap Italerei kits and having the decal sheet probably pushed me over the edge to do it.  It's like Hemingway said about owning cats: "having one leads to another." The end result are four very good-looking models, and I am glad I have them in my collection.

Editor's Note: for more information on JV-44, the best reference around is the Classics Publications book on JV-44.

If would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has well over 150,000 visitors a month, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.

Back to the Main Page